Rumor: Ericsson director is candidate to succeed Ballmer at Microsoft

The director of network company Ericsson, Hans Vestberg, is said to be one of the candidates to succeed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. That claims financial news agency Bloomberg. Besides Vestberg, there are other candidates.

The 48-year-old Swede Vestberg has been with Ericsson for decades and has been the general manager since 2010. Before that, he was financial director of the company for several years, which is mainly known for network equipment. Vestberg currently lives in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, but will probably have to move to the US if he were to become director of Microsoft. It is the first time that his name is mentioned in connection with Ballmer’s succession.

Vestberg is one of the candidates, in addition to internal candidates Satya Nadella and former Nokia director Stephen Elop, Bloomberg claims based on anonymous sources who would be familiar with the candidate list. Reportedly, there are even more external candidates and the list of candidates is constantly changing. Microsoft wants to close the search in the first part of 2014, the company said earlier.

Ballmer announced in August that he would retire within a year. He succeeded founder Bill Gates in 2000. It is still unknown when Microsoft will appoint a new director.